


drain

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Aksuma - Elizabeth E. Wein
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infection, Knives, Medical Procedures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 01:05:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17478374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: The cut has been infected, Medraut informs Lleu.





	drain

The cut has been infected, Medraut informs Lleu.

It is something that never would have occurred under his watch. Whenever Lleu has a cut, Medraut insists that Lleu clean it thoroughly, dowses it in stinging chemicals and scrubs at it so that Lleu is convinced it is getting worse, that Medraut just wants to get as much blood out of his body as possible. He's always thought the practice to be sadistic until now, with his cut hurting more than when it first formed, the skin bubbling up a little and screaming every time he touches it.

“Aquila should have cleaned it better,” Medraut mutters. He looks at the bubble of skin as balefully as he looks at Lleu when Lleu says something particularly offensive.

“He did his best.” Lleu does not think it wise to say that he did not actually go to Aquila about it; he is not used to going to Aquila about his cuts and bruises and illnesses anymore, now that Medraut is always around to take care of them. And he might not even have thought to go to Medraut about this one, had Medraut been around instead of off on a two-day trip to visit someone on a mining matter. But if he admits it was his own oversight, Medraut will be even crosser than he is now.

Medraut is always cross.

Medraut sighs. He is probably judging Aquila in his head, but it is not like him to criticize anyone at length—anyone but Lleu, that is, and never behind anyone's back. “All right then, little prince.” Lleu hates when he calls him that. “But we will have to drain the fluid out of it. It could take a while; I will have to sanitize a knife.”

Lleu says, “A knife.”

Medraut smiles. “Yes. Perhaps next time you can remember this when you go collecting scrapes and actually clean them out. Or avoid getting them in the first place,” he adds under his breath.

“You're one to talk,” Lleu mutters back. He's seen Medraut's own collection of scars: extensive and varied.

Medraut boils water and rinses a knife in it. It is a small lancet, and the daintiness of it worries Lleu more than a dagger. A dagger is an honest weapon, a warrior's weapon. Lancets, like poisons and brewery, strike him as eldritch tools of torture. They belong firmly to Medraut's domain. It is sure he knows what he does with them and he will do no harm, but they put Lleu on edge.

Medraut sighs as he dries off the dagger. He sits down on the floor and pats the ground next to him. “Sit down, Bright One.”

Lleu sits.

Medraut holds his arm steady. Careful but quick, he slits the skin on the cut. Lleu bites back a scream—it hurts in that unclean way, and it's not fair—and then it hurts less, though the ache is not entirely gone. Fluid leaks from the bubble, and Medraut mops it up with a piece of clean cloth.

“There,” he says, “now I will clean it better, so it will not get infected again. Stay there.”

He goes to fetch his tools, and Lleu sits, holding his arm still, clenching his jaw. In a minute he is back. He cleans out the cut, and puts an ointment over it that does not sting as much as Lleu expects it to--after a moment the pain even subsides. Then they cover up the cut again, and Medraut tells him they will check on it tomorrow to see if it's healing.

 

* * *

 

Unclean pain, pain of unclean wounds. That is what Lleu finds himself thinking, the night he is stranded in the wilderness with Medraut, holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other, waiting for treachery, knowing Medraut will strike at any sign of weakness. Unclean pain. It glitters in Medraut's eyes. He's known for some time now that Medraut is a wounded man. It shows in his scars, in the nightmares Goewin has told him about, in the way Medraut cringes at Morgause's touch but will do anything she should ask for, in the sneer underneath his deference. But this is more than a wound, here. This is a wound infected, so that the corruption spreads all through Medraut, taints him with hate and anger. There's mania even in the coldness, the deliberation, of his gaze.

Sickness is an odd way to think of treachery, he knows. He should hate Medraut right now but he can only pity him. He wishes he knew how to use a lancet, to cut the venom out of Medraut and drain it away, make Medraut well again…

He does not. He throws words at Medraut, seeking out his injuries, and he knows he hits them, but he truly draws only blood. Only makes things worse. This is not something he has been trained in—if this were only a duel, it would be so much easier! But Medraut is the doctor, not he, and if a doctor decides to encourage sickness, there is little to be done about it.

“I'm sorry,” he whispers. Medraut gives him a sharp look, but his murmur mingles with the rasping of the fire, and it is not heard. That's for the best. Medraut does not seem in the mood for apologies. To be asked for forgiveness while seeking revenge is hardly what he can want. Besides, Lleu is not apologizing for any offense Medraut would have in mind, only for his inability to heal wounds he did not cause.

The best he can do tonight, for either of them, is offer anesthetic. He asks Medraut to tell him a story of Africa, of better times, so that for a while they can both ignore the pain and the sickness that lies between them. He will have another go at cleaning this wound tomorrow, though he worries his exhaustion will make him inept, and he can only hope that in seeking out infection he won't accidentally hit an artery and kill them both.

**Author's Note:**

> I've only read book one of the Aksuma series but I have a lot of Medraut and Lleu feelings okay. Just a lot of feelings.  
> If you enjoyed, feel free to leave a comment or check me out on tumblr or dreamwidth at convenientalias!  
> Also. DONT TAKE MY MEDICAL ADVICE, GUYS, I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT INFECTIONS.


End file.
